Case Studies on Biofuel Supply Logistics for Forest Bioenergy in China

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BTAIJ, 8(10), 2013 [1357-1361] Case Studies on biofuel supply logistics for forest bioenergy in China

Lan Zhang, Caihong Zhang*, Liangzhen Zang School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University, No.35 Qinghuadonglu, Beijing, (CHINA) E-mail : [email protected]

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS

In China, the poor supply logistic and the high feedstock cost are the Supply logistics; most critical constraints to the development of forest bioenergy. The aim Bioenergy; of this study is to identify the supply logistic from forest land to the final Forest; delivery for bioenergy utilization. A case study approach was used to Case study; collect the relevant information and data. And two different supply logistics China. of wood biofuel were designed for two locations in Inner Mongolia, one was from collective forests and the other was from state-owned forests.  2013 Trade Science Inc. - INDIA

INTRODUCTION Supply logistics have been well documented in North America and European countries, focusing on supply Bioenergy is considered to be a fossil fuel that sub- system design with affecting factors of harvesting and stitutes to offset greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In transportation, models of estimating supply chains and China, the development of forest bioenergy is emerging costs[6, -8]. Whereas in China, only limited information is ’s energy chal- as a part of the solution to the country available for the supply logistics of forest biomass using lenges. Progress is being made with the establishment for bioenergy. Several affecting factors were prelimi- ’s central gov- of several small-scale projects and China narily considered in the previous studies, including har- ernment predicts its power-generating capacity using vesting machine, hauling distance and selection of stor- agricultural and forest bioenergy will be some 24 GW age location[9-11]. by 2020[1]. Previous studies have demonstrated that The primary purpose of this study is to identify the forest biomass is particularly promising for bioenergy supply logistics for two locations in Inner Mongolia: utilization because it is abundant, can play a positive Naimanqi which has a bioenergy plant supplied by col- role in the forest environment management, reduces lective forests and Arxan, where a proposed bioenergy carbon dioxide emission, and can contribute to improve plant would be supplied by state-owned forests. To human welfare[2-5]. evaluate supply logisticÿwe focused on factors such as The principal constraints associated with the increas- geographic distribution, climatic conditions, ownership ing utilization of forest biomass for bioenergy are sup- of the forest, production process and institutional ar- ply logistics of harvesting, collection and transportation. rangements. 1358 Case Studies on biofuel supply logistics for forest bioenergy in China BTAIJ, 8(10) 2013 FULL PAPER

FOREST OWNERSHIP AND analyze the data and other pertinent information in this MANAGEMENT IN CHINA study. As an empirical inquiry method, a case study seeks multiple sources of evidence highly relevant to Forest ownership can influence forest biomass sup- the research questions, and leads to an in-depth under- ply to bioenergy plants. Two main types of ownership standing of the case[15]. In the study, two cases in Inner exist in China, state-owned forests that are owned by Mongolia were selected in order to obtain independent the national state and managed by state Forestry Bu- conclusions from each case as well as to illustrate con- reaus, and collective forests owned by collective orga- trasting situations. And the data included interviews with nizations such as townships and villages. representatives from related organizations, farmers and Generallyÿstate-owned forests are of larger scale and workers, field observations, and secondary data sourc- located in ecologically important or sensitive areas. ing from institutional reports, company documents and Conservation is an important goal of most state-owned government internet and research journals. forests. Government strategies of the late 1990s led to Arxan and Naimanqi, both located in the Inner severe financial difficulties for many state Forestry Bu- Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, were chosen reaus by drastically reducing timber harvests and at the as cases in this study for the following reasons: (1) there same time boosting afforestation and reforestation[12]. is currently a lack of experience in forest bioenergy According to the current forest laws, Forestry Bureaus projects in China and few people are well-informed should run economically viable operations and improve about forest biomass for bioenergy. However, Naimanqi the welfare of forest workers while at the same time has already established a bio-power plant using forest protecting the ecological integrity of forests. Experience biomass as feedstock. Meanwhile, in Arxan, a bio- in several Forestry Bureaus (in Chongqing and Shanxi) power plant have been in planning; (2) the two typical has shown that this could be achieved by diversifying forest ownership types in China are state-owned forest into new forest products and markets. Collective for- and collective forests and they are represented by the ests are divided into small plots that are contracted to two cases. Arxan has state forests while in Naimanqi local farmers or organizations. Harvesting requires a the forest biomass mainly comes from collectively owned license issued by the local government and reforesta- forest; and (3) the forest ecosystems in the two location is mandatory. tions are very different but the two areas share key Bioenergy from forest biomass has the potential to socio-economic attributes. Specifically, Arxan and improve profitability of forest management operations Naimanqi are similar in the scale of the bioenergy power if more harvested wood can be used commercially. plants, forest biomass requirements, levels of regional Richardson et al.[13] even ascertained that bioenergy economic development, and household energy con- production under sustainable forest management pro- sumption. vided widespread benefits at all levels of society. Aside from providing additional revenue to Forestry Bureaus DESCRIPTION OF THE TWO CASES and forest license holders in China, the use of forest biomass for commercial bioenergy may increase the Naimanqi case economic viability of reforestation and shrub coppicing. Naimanqi, a county of Tongliao regionÿis located A study of shrubs planted as shelterbelts to stop deser- in the east of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. tification in northern China found that shrub coppicing Twelve townships exist in Naimanqi with a total of 96 yields five to seven tonnes of branches per hectare ev- villages. The total area in Naimanqi is 815 900 ha with ery year[14] and that selling the biomass for bioenergy forest covering 216 000 or 29% (see TABLE 1). The can generate 500 to 700 yuan per hectare annually. forest is either collectively owned (80%) or state-owned (20%). METHODS Within a radius of 80 km of the bio-power plant, about 630 000 tons of forest biomass is available for BiiAo Tcaesec hstundoyll omgeythodology was used to collect and bioenergy, including shrub branches from coppicing, An Indian Journal BTAIJ, 8(10) 2013 Caihong Zhang et al. 1359 FULL PAPER

TABLE 1 : Demographic and forestry characteristics of the Forestry Bureaus and the agents at the collection sites. two cases areas The power plant signs contracts with the individual agents. The village agents organize the collection of forest biomass by the local famers, while the township agents supervise the village agents in their respective townships.

felling residues, thinning material and wood processing residues. Consumption of wood fuel as household fuel was estimated at 100 000 tons per year by the local Forestry Bureau. Therefore, the local forest biomass Figure 1 : Organization of forest biomass supply for supply is sufficient to meet the fuel requirement of the bioenergy in Naimanqi case power plant, 160 000 tons per year. The potential logistics of Arxan have been devel- Arxan case oped by the Forestry Bureaus, as shown in Figure 2. Arxan, a typical state-owned forest area, belongs The proposed bio-power plant will contract with the to the Conservation Areas of Natural Forests of Inner three neighboring Forestry Bureaus within a 50 km ra- Mongolia. Its forested area and forest cover rate are dius: Arxan Municipal Forestry Bureau, Arxan Forestry ’s (TABLE 1). The more than double than Naimanqi Bureau and Bailang Forestry Bureau. There are four forest is administered by four Forestry Bureaus: Arxan proposed collection sites for collecting, chipping and Municipal Forestry Bureau, Arxan Forestry Bureau, storing the forest biomass. Several factors were con- Bailang Forestry Bureau and Wuchagou Forestry Bu- sidered for determining the location of the collection reau. The planning bio-power plant would be the same sites: road infrastructure, suitable storage area, process- size as the Naimanqi case at a capacity of 24 MW. It is ing equipment availability and fire safety provisions. estimated that over 600 000 tonnes of wood residues was available as fuel within a collection radius of 50 km of the power plant. More than 110 000 tonnes of wood fibre is currently used for household heating and cook- ing annually. Per capita wood fuel consumption is higher in Arxan than Naimanqi because wood is more easily available from wood processing plants and wood fuel collection. This leaves sufficient potential forest biomass for the proposed bio-power plant.

FOREST BIOMASS SUPPLY LOGISTICS FOR FOREST BIOENERGY Figure 2 : Organization of forest biomass supply for Organisation and management logistics bioenergy in Arxan case In Naimanqi, forest biomass for bio-power gen- Forest biomass supply chains for bioenergy eration is collected from the collective forests of 96 vil- Figure 3 summarizes the main processing steps from lages in the twelve townships. The forest is contracted the forest land to the bioenergy plant (skidding, hauling, out by tenure to local farmers in small plots of 0.5 to 2 chipping, storage and transportation). The two cases hectare. A total of 12 township agents and 96 village differ in some respects. agents arrange the forest biomass collection. Figure 1 In Naimanqi, the collection, including skidding and summarizes the organization of the power plant, the hauling, is conducted by a single fBarmiioeTr oerc ah fanmoillloy gbye- An Indian Journal 1360 Case Studies on biofuel supply logistics for forest bioenergy in China BTAIJ, 8(10) 2013 FULL PAPER

est biomass collection was carried out, the number of collection sites and the type and size of equipment used. A significant result of the study is that a shorter collection distance, a more simplified division in work and more larger-scale equipment was incurred in Naimanqi than Arxan. Based on the assumption of using the exist- ing equipment in the Arxan case, more equipment and fuel would be consumed in the hauling process. At present, commercial bioenergy from forest biomass is still in its infancy in China and little case data is available to compare with the supply logistics in Arxan and Naimanqi. So there are still some uncertainties in the evaluation of forest biomass use for bioenergy.

Figure 3 : Forest biomass supply chains in Naimanqi and ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Arxan cause there are many collection sites and the hauling This research was financially supported by the Fun- distance from the forest to the village collection site is damental Research Funds for the Central short at no more than 5km. When a relatively large Universities(NO.BLX 2013012), the National Social amount of forest biomass is accumulated at the collec- Science Foundation of China (Grant No.11CGL060) tion site, it will be bundled and transported by truck to and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant the power plant 80 km away. The forest biomass is No. 2012M510315). chipped at the bio-power plant before being fed into the boiler furnace. REFERENCES In the Arxan, the proposed forest biomass supply chain has more steps than the Naimanqi case. The col- [1] National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRCC). China mid and long term plan- lection activities from the forest land to the collection ning of renewable energy development. Available site would be carried out in three steps and by three online: http://www.sdpc.gov.cn/zcfb/zcfbtz/ separate workgroups because of the extensive distri- 2007tongzhi/W020070904607346044110.pdf, bution of the forest and the heavy snow in winter. Firstly, (2007) forest biomass is piled by hand in the forest land; then it [2] J.Gan, C.T.Smith; A comparative analysis of woody is hauled an average 500 m to the roadside with a mule- biomass and coal for electricity generation under drawn vehicle where the wood is transferred on to trac- various CO2 emission reductions and taxes, Biom- tors that haul it to a collection site, 25 km to 50 km ass Bioenergy; 30, 296-303 (2006). away. The chipping and storage steps are carried out at [3] A.Kumar, P.Flynn, S.Sokhansanj; Biopower genera- the collection sites with chippers special technical fa- tion from mountain pine infested wood in Canada: cilities. The chipped biofuel would be transported 50 An economical opportunity for greenhouse gas miti- km to the planned power plant by truck. gation, Renewable Energy, 33, 1354-1363 (2008). [4] L.Zeng, S.H.Gu; Developing Chinese energy-oriented agriculture & energy-oriented forestry to en- CONCLUSION sure self-relied oil security, Journal of China Soft Science, 9, 79-83 (2005). In conclusion, a detailed two-case study was car- [5] J.Domac, K.Richards, S.Risovic; Socio-economic ried out in Inner Mongolia, one case represented a for- drivers in implementing bioenergy projects, Biom- est biomass supply chain from collective forests and ass Bioenergy, 28, 97-106 (2005). the other case from state-owned forests. The supply [6] T.Yoshioka, K.Aruga, T.Nitami, H Sakai,., lBogiisiotiTcse dcifhfenreodllo ing byoth cases in terms of how the for- An Indian Journal BTAIJ, 8(10) 2013 Caihong Zhang et al. 1361 FULL PAPER

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